China's answer to ChatGPT

Imagine thinking a fish was extinct, only to find it swimming around off the coast of South Africa!

That's exactly what happened with the Coelacanth. This ancient fish was believed to have vanished 66 million years ago… only to be found alive and well in 1938, looking the same as it did in the fossil record!

TODAY:

• Meet Ernie, the hottest chatbot in China

• Adobe’s Premier Pro gets AI superpowers

• Around the web: A strange object crashed through a Florida home.

• Protect your identity and your data with Incogni.

CHATBOTS

Meet Ernie, China’s Favourite Chatbot!

Baidu's "Ernie Bot" is leading China's AI chatbot market with a huge user base of over 200 million.

Launched just eight months ago, the bot has doubled its user count since December!

Baidu CEO Robin Li noted that the bot’s API handles 200 million requests daily, showcasing its wide use.

Ernie Bot is also popular among businesses, with 85,000 companies using it.

Western chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude are trained on a majority of English content, which is why Chinese companies want to build bots that can compete and beat US bots.

Ernie is growing fast!

This wide adoption highlights its effectiveness across various sectors.

Baidu is also seeing significant financial benefits from Ernie, particularly in advertising services and helping other companies develop AI models.

Here’s what you should know

• Ernie Bot has quickly reached 200 million users in just eight months.

• The bot is used by 85,000 businesses, showing its wide utility.

• It's a major contributor to Baidu’s income, especially in ads and AI development.

However, the competition is growing stronger. Moonshot AI's "Kimi", supported by Alibaba and only a year old, is rapidly gaining ground.

While Ernie Bot is growing, Kimi is catching up quickly, indicating a dynamic and evolving AI chatbot market where staying ahead requires constant innovation and engagement.

The chatbot competition just got a whole lot more interesting!

Vote for live results and see results + opinions from yesterday at the bottom of the email.

IDENTITY THEFT

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On This Day

17th April 1964 - Ford Motor Company unveils the iconic Ford Mustang at the New York World's Fair, revolutionising the American car market with the introduction of the "pony car."

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SOFTWARE

Adobe is giving Premiere Pro AI superpowers

Adobe is stepping up its game with a new AI video model for its Premiere Pro software, part of the Firefly family.

This upgrade introduces AI tools that let users tweak videos with simple text prompts — much like changing things up in Photoshop.

You can now add or remove elements and even stretch out video clips with ease.

Cut, Copy, Paste.

The team is also eyeing integrations with third-party AI tech from the likes of Runway, Pika Labs, and OpenAI’s Sora.

These are still just possibilities, and there’s no set launch date yet, but Adobe is aiming to roll these out sometime this year.

Here’s what’s happening:

• AI tools are about to make video editing as easy as typing.

• Adobe might team up with other AI hotshots to boost your editing options.

• Adobe plans to keep things transparent with Content Credentials, so you know which AI helped craft your clips.

Despite the absence of a definite launch schedule, Adobe’s move to weave these sophisticated AI tools into Premiere Pro shows it’s serious about staying ahead in the creative software arena.

The focus on transparency, with plans to implement Content Credentials, underscores their commitment to clear and open creative processes.

I can’t wait to put together my oscar-worth AI masterpiece!

Mindstream Picks

Double XP is now active in NHL 24 until April 19th, 9pm PT, offering players in World of Chel a boost for Battle Pass progression and faster rewards, except in Pro-Am mode.

Maxar Intelligence plans to upgrade its geospatial intelligence market presence through partnerships and global growth, drawing on Smoot's tech industry expertise.

The SEC is set to sue Uniswap Labs following a year-long investigation, signaled by the delivery of a Wells notice.

Google warns users of unofficial YouTube apps with ad blockers about potential buffering issues or errors, citing violations of its terms of service.

Don’t Miss - NASA confirmed that the mysterious object that crashed through a house in Naples, Florida, last month was indeed from the International Space Station (ISS). The object, identified as a support component from a cargo pallet of old batteries jettisoned from the ISS in 2021, is made of Inconel, a metal alloy designed to withstand extreme conditions. Weighing 1.6 pounds and measuring four inches high by 1.6 inches in diameter, the component is just slightly smaller than a standard can of Red Bull.

AI Art

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Yesterday’s Poll

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